What to do when confronted with a room full of cute kittens?
Client: RamJam
Skill set: Virtual Reality / R&D
Before reading any further please know that we're all animal lovers at RamJam.
This was a surprising experiment in human nature.
Whilst testing out VR interactions we placed a floor full of 3D kittens in a virtual room, applied ragdoll physics to them then watched to see what users would do in the experience.
With adorable, defenseless kittens surrounding them what would users do
Leave them alone and ask to play something else?
Nope - without fail the users tendency to do the bad thing when there are no consequences immediately took hold.
Without prompting, users would pick up kittens and stuff them in cupboards, sweep them up with a broom and fling them as far as they could over the wall in front of them.
Leave them alone and ask to play something else?
Nope - without fail the users tendency to do the bad thing when there are no consequences immediately took hold.
Without prompting, users would pick up kittens and stuff them in cupboards, sweep them up with a broom and fling them as far as they could over the wall in front of them.
The awfulness of doing something out of character and seemingly so cruel turned into the one thing that users did because it felt so wrong they couldn't help themselves.
It reminds us (but with far less consequences at stake) of the Derren Brown experiment - by using negative suggestion, can Derren Brown convince someone to kill a kitten?
It reminds us (but with far less consequences at stake) of the Derren Brown experiment - by using negative suggestion, can Derren Brown convince someone to kill a kitten?
